What a great way to close out 2018! Former Bad Company bassist Paul Cullen headlined at Delaware’s Milton Theatre on Friday, December 28. Pouring his eponymous wine during the VIP meet and greet before the show, Cullen even found time to chat with the lighting strike crew from the 2016 world premiere production of A Roadkill Opera, speaking with Rich Gaudiosi and hopping on a call with RJ Gaudiosi.
Paul Cullen (on phone) at Delaware’s Milton Theatre on 28 December 2018 with (left to right) A Roadkill Opera‘s merchandising director DJ Choupin; lighting strike crew from the January 2016 world premiere of A Roadkill Opera at the Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint in Washington DC, Rich Gaudiosi; Marjory Gaudiosi; and (at the other end of the phone, off-camera) the other member of the 2016 lighting strike crew, RJ Gaudiosi.
Cullen, whose terrific show with Lower Case Blues sold out the Milton Theatre, had introduced A Roadkill Opera‘s executive producer/librettist Stephan Alexander Parker to the venue. The two had first met at one of Cullen’s events at Bay Bridge Cove in Stevensville, Maryland.
Paul Cullen, former bassist for Bad Company, and A Roadkill Opera librettist Stephan Alexander Parker in a kitchen at Bay Bridge Cove in Stevensville, Maryland.A Roadkill Opera librettist/executive producer Stephan Alexander Parker at Delaware’s Milton Theatre with a bottle of Rosso di Toscana in the Paul Tagliaferro Cullen artist series, December 2018.
Among the items Cullen and Parker discussed at the Milton Theatre were tentative plans to bring a production of A Roadkill Operathere. In August 2018, Sam Calagione offered for Dogfish Head Craft Brewery to sponsor a show at the Milton Theatre, which is about a half-mile from the brewery.
Dogfish Head Craft Brewery founder Sam Calagione (right) met with A Roadkill Opera‘s lyricist Stephan Alexander Parker in Gaithersburg, Maryland, in August 2018. Sam offered to have Dogfish Head Craft Brewery sponsor a production of A Roadkill Opera at the Milton Theatre. A 2019 date is being explored.
It is a good match: the workshop stand-and-sing of A Roadkill Opera at Artomatic 2012 in Crystal City, Virginia, had been on the Cherry Smash Stage, sponsored by Heineken.
George Spelvin hangs lights for the Artomatic 2012 workshop concert of A Roadkill Opera. Videographer Ben Ganz (who has since gone on to greater success with Vego Films) is in the foreground with his back to the camera. The stages were sponsored by Heineken, hence the sign in the background.
When the world premiere production of A Roadkill Opera was staged in January 2016 at the Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpointin Washington DC, a liquor license and associated insurance were procured in order to allow for on-stage quaffing of quality beers by the cast. This makes thematic sense, as the action takes place in the showroom at the Silver Dollar Bar of the Wort Hotel, as a couple of rival whitewater rafting guides prepare their amateur improv comedy troupe for opening night of their first professional gig.
Holly (Laura Wehrmeyer) and Eddie (Alan Naylor) debate ways and whether it is necessary to punch up the humor of In A Clearing while Marvin (Christopher Dews) tends to the llama in A Roadkill Opera in its world premiere performances in January 2016 at the Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint in Washington DCEd Bachtel plays the U.S. Nasal Academy arrangement of the national anthem, by harmonica, through his nose, in this screen-grab from the 1988 Roadkill Live!!! on its closing night in the Silver Dollar Bar‘s Showroom at the Wort Hotel. A standing ovation was the norm.The audience is encouraged to get involved in the grand finale, as Eddie (Alan Naylor) prepares to play the national anthem, by harmonica, by nose, with the support of the stage manager Marvin (Christopher Dews), Debby (Shaina Martinez), Holly (Laura Wehrmeyer), Stephan (David Timpane) and Dave (Alex Miletich IV) in A Roadkill Opera at the Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint in Washington DC in January 2016
